Sfera, Voluntary Fire Fighters Association in Bitola

Bitola is a mid-sized town in southern MK about 10 km from the Greek border about three hours away by bus. I had arranged two interviews with NGOs there, so I spent the night before at Lizze’s (ETA Fulbright) who lives there.

Sefera Bitola is a voluntary firefighter organisation, the first of it’s kind in MK(others are in St. Nikola and ‘Polila’). They were formed in May of 2007 as a project started in another NGO in Bitola. It was the student’s intuitive to form a volunteer firefighting force to help spread awareness about fire prevention. They applied to foreign grants to make the youth fire brigade, and were granted the funds. In 2009, they separated from the original NGO and formed their own. They have partnerships with organizations in Sweden, Finland and Bosnia.

Sfera focuses more on the theory than the practical fighting of fires. They offer trainings in elementary schools about how kids should respond to a fire in their house or school. They have a (really cool-personal bias) new program for training in schools. They go in one week and pass out handouts about earthquakes, fires, etc and provide a “what to do training” for the kids and teachers. Then a few days later they go back in. But this time with fog machines- and do a fake fire “drill” complete with alarms and “smoke!” They say that even though the teachers know it is coming, some still freak out. However, in the first attempt of this sort they evacuated 450 students in 5 minutes! They call this a great success!They plan to do this in every high school in Bitola soon.

While there is teaching on fire safety, there are no free alarms. In fact, when Sfera tried to order a fire alarm it took them 3 months to find where you could buy one in Bitola. Alarms are not in hotels or shopping centers.

They have 110 members that have passed the basic fire training. They train with professional firefighters on fighting fires. Sfera and the professional fighters have an agreement to share equipment for training activities. When Sfera gets new equipment, they donate it to the professionals and then are able to use it when needed (if the professional aren’t using it at the moment). Sometimes they do go with the professionals to fight fires on the mountains, if they are 20 and up. (side note-- you have to be 18 to join the professional association.)

They also provide training on leadership development and democracy, since firefighter must lead. Their main training is a 2-3 day seminar with monthly followup meetings that they try to hold 2 times per year. Some of what they teach are the different styles of leadership. They also work with the Red Cross for first aid training.

They work with EVS, as both a sending and receiving location. They have gotten 4 volunteers and sent 5 outside of MK. They also participate in youth exchanges and trainings. The exchanges are more like camps, however, where people stay for either 6 or 14 days. There are a few regulations, but they are not strenuous. Sfera themselves, have put on 11 trainings in the past two months!

They are currently making a comic strip for kids that they will print in color to hand out. They will publish in both Macedonian and English, for now. On the local level, they promote volunteering and youth mobilization. They want to inspire the youth to mobilize around things they care about. They also help young artists put on shows. Recently they have done it for a singer and a painter.

They have also started a new project that helps raise money for a charity fund for young children with life threatening diseases (such as cancer). They help with providing free or reduced prices in surgery. Over 7,000 people attended their first charity concert for the fund. They are planning 2 other concerts now. They also raise money by completing Cocktails4Charity, with different VIPs from Bitola.

In the Bitola Summer Festival, which is for cultural events, NGOs can help sponsor/put on an event. They are allowed to last between 1-3 days, and are fully sponsored by the local government. The goal is to connect citizens to culture and let them enjoy some leisure time. The municipality provides projectors, help organizing the events, and advertising. But only 3-5 NGOs apply. Sfera has cooperation with other NGOs in Bitola. They help preform a street theater, presentations on EVS, Peace Corps, and even flash mobs!

However, when discussing cooperation with the government, they have none with the national government. The municipality, however, is a different story. The municipality helps them out with about 10% of the time, such as when using the trucks (for fuel and water) or supplies.

The municipality does have a fund for NGOs, but it is split equally between all who apply. There are 136 registered NGOs in Bitola, but, according to Sfera, only about 8 actually function- but they all apply in February! Sfera and a few others are trying to show that the others are not actually working. The fund, upon being split comes to about 350 Euros yearly. But Sfera pointed out that it would be about 13, 500 Euros if it was split between those who actually worked.

Sfera’s yearly budget comes from the following sources: 90% EU and their partners, 2% sponsors, 8% Macedonia. It is really hard for them to find a sponsor in Bitola, as most of the companies are located in Skopje. There are 5 companies that regularly help the NGOs in MK, but they are still mainly located in Skopje.

Sfera is hopeful for the future and believe they will continue to make a positive impact in Bitola.

Meeting with a Contact

While there are technically three guys who work at Florozon, I had only met one of them once at the workshop they hosted. I was able to set up a meeting with him to see his views of the NGO sector. He has worked since 1994 in the civil society sector, and since 1998 with NGOs specifically. Many of the views stated below are his, and just give another perspective to the  debate.

He said that the sector has changed in the last five years in a positive sense. In the post-conflict society, there was some activism, mostly in youth organizations. The organizations were mostly with sports, schools, labor unions. In the beginning of transnational period, there was additional input from external sources. They began activism with issues of the environment, humanitarian aid connected to the Balkan wars. After 2001, there were organizations who dealt with peace issues and human rights. During their unlucky circumstances, it developed positively.

The problem with civil society in Macedonia, according to him, is that they mainly lack activism. Most NGOs are not member based or financed well. The knowledge and skills of NGO workers are still in development. Many people are not involved in civil society due to their fear of the government. there were some attempts to work critically against the government, but they were often “neutralized immediately.” Some of the attempts were shut down discreetly by discrediting the organizations or threatening the people who work there with jail.

When I asked if there was cooperation with the government, and he commented that there is some. Int he transition, the government didn’t see the benefit of civil society. Soon they realized the power that civil society had and wanted to be involved. Sometimes it is called the 5th sector, and the government tries to discredit NGOs as working for foreign agencies as spies. The political party with power is dealing with establishing small satellites all over the country (the NGOGOs). However, cooperation exists with a lot of analysis on who and why. The EU is pushing for cooperation especially in UNDP. There are areas where the government has no experience, and he thinks that NGOs can help in this area.

My contact is currently working in the government helping them to implement affirmative action. “No matter what, the government should cooperate to better serve.”  He is helping the government to try to link projects to have a better impact. The municipalities have responded favorable to the linkage. They are trying a mediation in schools as well. He wants better cooperation so there is a better institutionalization of the cooperation. He has worked with ‘teaching the teacher’ to reteach for more mediation between different groups, if the government doesn’t like anything they can just forget.

Financially, there are some connections between the government and NGOs. There is funding from casinos and the lottery. There are yearly bases, but they only give money to ‘their’ NGOs. There are special funds for NGOs, but there is a lot of criticism. When the government changes (as in the party changes), the list of recipients changes. If cooperation doesn’t go well, they will loose the money. Many NGOs have never asked for money, because they don’t want the money from the government. Many feel that it lacks impartially. It is seen as corrupted if they take the money; however, if there was a separate organization, they feel it would be corrupted too. Money often comes from international organizations and bilateral agreements.

For cooperation with the municipality, it depends on the individual municipalities. Some municipalities still want NGOs to be obedient. If the municipalities see the NGOs as having some power- they want to work with them. The municipalities will also work closer if the NGO is connected internationally. Sometimes municipalities support small NGOs or smaller projects by NGOs.

The biggest organizations are focused in Skopje, where there is a higher concentration of money. A few have tried to decentralize from Skopje, but most are still there. There is rarely any high profile organizations or money in the non-capital cities.

The current NGOs focus mostly on peace building. They might be dealing with the past and conflict management or  the “burning issues” (more ad-hoc intervention, monuments, identity issues, etc.). Some of the more successful ones focus on youth leadership and identification of potential leaders. Since 2001, most have focused on inter-ethnic cooperation. Many have targeted secondary schools and the youth. Some do this by teaching the directors and teachers of schools other by reaching out to the students. Some organizations want to better teach the OFA an related issues, others focus more on the environment.

This meeting went very well for such a short meeting, he offered to give me some contact information to other NGOs.

Florozon Workshop, Day 1

The next research event that I attended was not a meeting but rather a workshop hosted by Florozon the week before I started volunteering there. I have tons of information both on sustainable culture in the Balkans as well as how Florozon worked with the government to put this workshop on. I want to provide you with all of that information in case you were curious. But first, the workshop was written about in the news (kind of- in websites related to the agencies): Florozon and MOEPP (well they did have it, but I can’t find it any more).

When you walked into the EU Info Center, where it was held, you were greeted and directed towards a table when you could get an information packet (pen, pad of paper, booklet, agenda). I counted over 50 people here. It was to start at 11:30, but I was told “Well you have CET [which MK is a part of] and then you have MK time, one hour later!” [This has since been repeated to me many different times.

They had someone translating the whole talk into English throughout the two days.

There were many important people there including the Ombudsman of the Environment. They are to receive complaints from people about the Environment. They asked people to write to them so they can look into the citizens concerns. Their goal is to inform and promote this discussion and the cooperate with institutions and NGOs. They even claimed that the NGO sector is “our partner.”

There were tons of people there for the first part, when the Minister of the Environment was there. One interesting cultural thing that we (the Fulbrighters) have noticed is that part of the way through a meeting or presentation that they are filming, they will leave and go set up for the press conference, rather than staying for the rest of the speech and then setting up. The Minister was the first person to speak at the workshop (after being introduced). He stated that they would like to work on adopting legislation on the environment so that MK is more aligned with the EU. However,  the implementation is not just the work of the government, it is the requirement of the whole country. He believes that there is good conditions for good access towards good governance. They have raised awareness of legal rights in the people. The main condition for success is the good cooperation between all the organs of the Republic of Macedonia (judicial, etc). There is a necessary cooperation between the organs of the state and NGOs. This will lead to the final goal of the protect of the environment.

Next was a video speech by the Chairman of the Transportation, Communication and Ecology in the Parliament. He stated that this conference will help with legal tights. The Ombudsman should act whenever there is environmental harm. The citizens should be able to believe in their government to protect their rights.

The Minister of Norway was there, they were a partial sponsor, and he gave a short speech. He talked about how MK has adopted adequate laws and regulations towards the environment. The important thing for MK to do, he suggested, was to focus on the actual implementation. Proper monitoring is needed- and civil society can be helpful in this. Together, the different sectors need to jointly build capacity.

There was a short press conference break at this point. The Important People talked to the media about the environment and what was needed. I stood in the background and watched. I even got in a few of the news pictures, but I can’t find that link for you. They provided some snacks and drinks for us as well. At this point, all the news crews left as did many of the people.

When we all went back into the room, the Deputy Ombudsman for the Environment spoke. He talked about how the environment is important, especially for human life. They want maintainable development without violating the rights of future citizens. The government, who I am assuming she was referring to when she used “we,” wants regulations with compensation for the cost. They want the cost to be proportional to their ability to pay. There is a need for development and protection of the environment. MK should undertake protection before the damage i done, rather than try to restore the environment. The current laws aim to prevent risk/damage and mitigate them. There is a need for significance of raising public awareness for the protection of the environment. They need to provide information to kids and their family through schools and NGOs. The Prime Minister  believes that social country and a healthy environment equals a fundamental human right.  The right to access justice can be harmed everyday. There are Inspectorates for the Environment and Forest, and these people are allowed to make suggestions. They expect the NGO sector to be the press Representatives and address the ombudsman (who should be an independent expert and institution). They will then provide a general protection of legal rights. There was a law passed in 2008 about the procedure for Ombudsman. They are supposed to protect legal rights, on behalf of constitutional laws and ratified international agreements. Right now, there is a normative plan, most regulate the area with environmental law . It is relatively new, but regulated. He told us what to do when these rights are violated in MK. First, you should file a complain based upon facts, evidence, and your rights. Specifically who violated those rights. You can initiate those proceedings by yourself or in a group/NGO. There are very few complaints filed annually, and most of those that are filed are on individual rights.

Next,  Csaba Kiss an environmental law expert who manages the Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA) in Hungary, spoke about the “EU Acquis, methods and practices with the EU Ombudsman.” He mentioned that there was a great number of won cases in Hungary. EMLA works to provide free legal aid to the citizens of the EU. They want to help create an agenda for the Rio conference. Their activities range from capacity building, input into policy making. You can’t expect the environmental agency to be the only protector. The Ombudsman is supposed to act for the people’s rights, but if there is no specific law, then they can not act.In the EU there is an incredible amount of environmental legislation. One way to have legislation is to empower citizens and NGOs. EU organizations have 3 months to respond to complaints against them.

Then Jadranka Ivanova, the Head od the Sector for the EU at the Ministry for Environment. There are 34 chapters for rights in the environment with 10 sub chapters. The EU completes progress monitoring by the EU and there is a timetable of implementation. They have to fulfill questionnaires. The Ministry prepares reports that can be seen at their website. The EU keeps updating their laws, which makes it harder for MK to keep up. In MK, the public can address the ministry and individual sectors. They prepare reports for all projects and how it will effect the environment. When an individual submits a law suit or complaint, the administration court can tell the ministry what they have violated. There are 3 categories of criminal offenses in MK for rights violations, but she didn’t go into detail.

Next, Kiss from EMLA came back to discuss environmental regulation in Hungary/the EU. Some countries never had environmental laws until the EU forced them to. Ireland was the only EU country to not ratify the Aarhus convention. Before the EU, Hungary followed international trends. They were good in certain issues but missing in others. Sometimes the laws were not implemented correctly across the different EU countries. There are many different social concerns for balancing the environmental optimization, but it is better not to compromise. They should let people have access, information and justice. Kiss believes that there should be free access for the people. In Hungary, lawyers can only bring cases, but they don’t pay the court fees, but they do pay 1% of other fees. Court cases must be held in a timely manner. within the first 4-9 months they must hold the first hearing. The first 60 days there must be an hearing in an administration case. There must be legal aid, with a free attorney. There is a limit for the time spent on the case. When EMLA provided training for judges, many didn’t know what the different conventions or laws were.

The Office of the Ombudsman presented about environmental court cases in MK. The different ones that they had presided over, and the different ones that others in the room were involved in. She went really fast while talking and presenting, and the translator could not keep up. So I am not 100% of everything that was discussed.

After her presentation, Kiss came back and presented about a few court cases they had worked in Hungary. In Hungary's new constitution, natural resources are considered heritage; access to healthy food and environments are also important. According to the new constitution there is no human right to a safe environment. And if there is no right, then lawyers or the ombudsman can’t respond. Currently the ombudsman can call the polluters to stop and challenge them in court. They are able to monitor international treaties and the national plan. But this law has recently changed, and stripped them of all their powers. The new law, only allows them to call attention to the problems, participate in the inquiry, and suggest court cases but they can not prosecute.

Then they closed the day and they were going to start up the next day.

Florozon

The next day they they started off my recapping the previous day a bit, then presented the booklet that Florozon had made about your legal rights in MK in regards to environmental legislation. The power had gone out, so it was a really short presentation.

There is some protection of human rights (such as against loud noise), and some NGOs can start the procedures. But there is limited use of the Ombudsman, they can’t stop the purchase of land, only the development of it. People have protested the falling of the lake or other small cases (logging on reserves). They also presented a few other cases:

• the lady who lived on the ground floor of an apartment building. They put a park bench in front of her window, where teenagers were loud and drinking every night. She successfully complained and got the bench moved to another part of the park. However, it required 213 interventions, or a really long time.
• The Vardar waste. It comes from a dump, and went to where the waste was thrown into the river. The waste is from the fast construction of a building near the dump. There needs to be better places for waste. They imitated public debates to move the waste to a better location, however, it was never moved.

There is a lack of citizen’s awareness about their rights. There is also a lack of awareness by the institutions. The most frequent example is noise protection.

There was a bit of a debate between the attendees between the different things that had been done in MK. They were discussing the classical infringement of law with trash. It was hard to follow, because there was a problem with the translators.

The event when on for a bit longer, but I had to go to another meeting that I had set up before learning about the workshop. So I am not sure exactly what it was that they talked about.

Regional Center For Sustainable Development Kratovo

I had a bit of trouble meeting with this NGO- but for once it was me and not them! I  confirmed the meeting with them on a Thursday for a Friday meeting. I had been fighting a cold for a while, but on Friday morning when I woke up I couldn’t even get out of bed. Like I got up and started to get dress and felt like I had been awake for 30 hours straight doing hard labor. I texted them and sent an email saying I couldn’t make it. Sadly they still showed up to meet me at the bus, but we were able to rearrange my visit to them until later. I felt so bad, but there was just nothing I could do! That whole weekend was literally spent laying in bed or on the couch drinking sprite!

The mysterious NGO is the Regional Center for Sustainable Development (RCSD)  in Kratovo. Kratovo is about a 2 our bus ride away from Skopje towards Bulgaria. They met me at the bus station and we walked through the town on our way to their NGO’s building. They had the second floor of a building, with a restaurant on the first floor. Their office had a storage room, bathroom, small office with computers in it, large boardroom connected to an office room. Their walls had tons of posters on it from various campaigns they had participated in in the past. Most of their furniture had “Donated by the EU” on it.

RCSD is a result of an EU project, rather than grassroots support (which they also have). They were established in 2003; until 2006 they were the NGO support center in the region. They were part of a project that helped to open 8 other NGO support centers. When they became their own NGO, they focused on social and economic fragility. They established their NGO as a way of providing sustainability to the region. In their position as a support center, they keep abreast of the most recent changes in NGO law, which happens often- they advice other NGOs on the changes. While they act as a support center for other NGOs, they have the same status as any other NGO and fight for the same funding as the other NGOs. They offer their office up for free to use for meetings or access to the internet. Currently they have three paid staff and three volunteers. They are a part of several national and international organisations with different but compatible goals, mostly in support of quality youth laws.

They work towards sustainable development in MK. They want to have a better social and economic integration in Kratovo. This NGO tries to help make Kratovo more developed, while gaining more perspective on the national level. They are also trying to make the local government function more as a “good governance” partner. They are working with the government to make their actions more transparent and accountable towards the local community. They also work with minority groups, such as the Roma community, to help them get their voice out.

They provide trainings for public institutions and the community. When they train the community they do so because often the public is uninformed about how the government works. This way citizens can know how to best maximize their contact with the government- especially to gain better access to their services. They cover 4 municipalities and about 180 NGOs. They help people learn how to establish an NGO, strategically plan, finance, and budget for an NGO as well as project management. They do this through about 30 trainings a year. The Regional Center wants the government and private companies to be more energy efficient. Not only is this more economically, they claim, but also allows a more efficient use of taxpayer money. They are advocating for the government to create an annual energy efficiency plan; they are helping the government better understand the reasons.

They also support a youth club, in its infancy, that is focused on building the capacity of the youth. Allowing them to learn how to advocate on all issues that are important to them. They hope to grow leaders who will have developed quality work towards the youth.  They focus on areas that the local youth is concerned with: training for debates (such as in a model EU), how EU policies are implemented and able to raise their voices for issues relevant to them.

They also are trying to expand the tourism base in Kratovo. Their city is known for many old buildings and a specific style of architecture that is not found elsewhere in MK. However, since they are 22 hours outside of Skopje, and they are not well advertised, no one comes. Therefore they are trying to develop sustainable tourism. They want a long term plan to draw tourists to the area. Tourism, they claim, will also provide better integration and strengthen the capacity to provide social development in the region.

In relation to both the local and national governments, they like most others, have tried to work with the national, but have had more success in the local environment. The national government cooperates when they need help but never the other way around. The national government might help in any way that doesn’t involve money, such as providing training. RCSD doesn’t feel that this is helpful cooperation nor do they count it as being supportive. When it doesn’t cost them any money, time or people, the national government will help. They will provide space, such as what they did with the local children’s park that was recently built. The national government might help with some form of money, but this is extremely rare. The government claims that they no longer have the time, but RCSD believes it is because they do not find it important. The RCSD completed all of their trainings and provided suggestions to the government.They completed all of their responsibilities to the government and received no support. The government claims there are other responsibilities.

There is a part of the budget set aside for NGOs, roughly 400,000 MKD ($8,480). They stated that the NGOs that receive the funding are often the newly formed national government/party related. Or the same ones get the grants every year. They have never received money from the MK government. As part of a way to raise money, they teach French, Spanish, and Italian to local students. They also provide other services that they charge a small fee for. But most of their money is from international donors.

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After our meeting in their office, we went to a local school in Rankovce. They met up with some trainers who were going to be presenting on energy efficiency to a group of kids. Every class sent a representative to the presentation. Then, after the presentation to the children, they made one to the teachers. There were less teachers there than there should have been due to a “emergency” meeting. Both sets of trainers suggested that it was politics rather than an emergency for the meeting.

The trainers who showed up from Skopje were a part of another NGO (who I have been trying to meet with to no avail). They did most of the presentation to the children, while RCSD did most of the presentation to the adults. The trainer for the kids had an amazing personality. And I felt super good about it because I could understand most of the presentation.

The children were pretty attentive during her presentation. They used a powerpoint and handed out comic books. they also had some things that they hung up around the classroom and just for the presentation. The presentation was on how to use energy efficiently and the different types of places we can get energy from in the world (water, sun, wind, gas, coal, waste). My favorite line of the whole day was “Енергетски ресрси виза за зелена иднина!“ “‘Renewable Energy is the visa for a green future!”

See my travel blog for the travel part of this trip.

SOZM

I was finally able to meet with another women’s rights organization for my next meeting. SOZM or the National Council for Gender Equality (НСЖМ), is an NGO located in Skopje focusing on domestic violence. They had the smallest office I have yet seen. They had some room that was at most 10 feet long and 5 feet across. They fit about 5-7 people in this office at the time I was there. It was very disorganized- papers and books everywhere, but they were in the middle of a campaign. This was my shortest interview, because they had allotted less than one hour for our meeting. Also, they were very busy at this time.

This interview took place through a translator, because the head of the organization didn’t speak English, however, some of the information I got from the lady who translated. She also worked there and was not just a translator.

After the “reorganization” of Macedonia in 1991, they created the organization in Skopje and a few in other towns. They hosted humanitarian and peace events across the country. About 4 years later, there were 13 different women’s organizations in a network for international women’s rights.
Back then, many women were not involved in political activity. From the first and second parliamentary elections only 4 or 5 of the 120 members were women. The Reason for this, according to SOZM, was the parties themselves. They didn’t have women in the parties, they saw no need at first. This was one of their first goals- to get more women involved in politics. This was one reason for the establishment of their NGO- they saw this as a channel for social activity.
Using the political empowerment of women as the jumping board, they went as network throughout MK. All the different organizations completed independent activities but shared a common vision.

The government is supposed to support local women organizations and build their capacity. In 2011, there are 110 local independent organizations in the network that SOZM is a part of. They are the result of organizations acting as a network to promote the interests of women. Outside of the network, there are 200 other independent local women’s organizations The NGO sector outside of Skopje is not very active, nor visible. But there are a few NGOs that are very active.

SOZM works with the government and the municipalities, but mostly with the municipalities. They have no problem working with the government. They work closely with the local government, but it is “a different story” when working with the national government. Every time they approach the national government the situation is different. The national government  is fine to work with, but just not good for money. They have not received funding from the government for over 5 years; what funding they did get, was very minimal. All the funding comes from international donors. There is more money coming from the national government in the future. After MK became a Candidate Country, there was less funding available to NGOs in MK. In the future, they want to their use of international donors. While many of the people active in their organization are volunteers, they need funds to pay for their office space and main activities.
They work towards fighting the perception of opposition NGOs. They admit there are some NGOGOs and ones that are specifically one party or the other, but not all are. SOZM claims that not very many organizations are perceived this way. They did not elaborate.

While they mainly focus on violence now, they want to branch out to focus on economic and political issues. They do not yet have the funds to realize these goals yet.
SOZM provides a SOS line in three different mobile numbers, so it is no charge to the victims. They are able to reach someone to talk about their problems. Then the women who call will be refereed to other organizations for shelters, legal aid, etc. They can also be advised on their legal rights.  They also have an intervention center. You can stay there for 24 to 48 hours before you have to move. The center provides accommodation and food for the women. Outside of Skopje other organizations provide the same services within the network or women's organizations. They promote the call lines and shelters on local media, leaflets, etc. They even organized a round table with the stakeholders when the lines first became active.

They probably serve about 80 women monthly.

They also focus on the economic empowerment of women. They provide English and computer courses. They will train women how to start their own businesses. Or how to expand a current business. There is also a program for peace and conflict resolution that they work with. They promote the UN Resolution 1325. Towards increasing the participation of women in politics/democracy, their input for decision making, peace and in upper levels in the police and army.

ESEM (Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women of Republic of Macedonia)

was really hoping to meet with this next NGO, I had found one of their publications while I was in the US and it was amazingly informative! So, I was very disappointed when I didn’t hear from them for over a month, and then when I called them to ask about the email, they stated “Yes, we got the email.” Nothing else. However, they did agree to set up a meeting with in 48 hours.

This was Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women of Republic of Macedonia (ESEM). Their office is located right off the main square in an apartment building, like every office seems to be here. When you walk in, you find a reception area, conference room, and 2-3 offices (I am not sure, because I walked directly into the conference room and was not given a tour). There was a built in bookshelf to one side of the conference room, totally filled with books. The table was littered with tons of papers, obviously mid thought. There was also a TV on, which was kept on through the interview.

ESEM focuses on women and equal opportunities They try to make sure that MK and EU standards are aligned. This is difficult because there is no EU standard, every country has a different standard. In MK there is a draft law on equality by the opposition, but it is mostly for general discrimination which is a “defocus” (not positive, but will strengthen the general system). There is no systematic approach to gender equality.

ESEM was formed in 1985. This period was the initialization of civil society in MK. They were helped with aid from a Dutch Development Agency. Their initial focus was on assessing and addressing the urgent needs of women. They have moved into a new area recently on women’s health. But they do focus on violence against women and women’s human rights (monitor quality implementation of treaty). They then are able to report to the UN on their findings. They claim they have the ability to improve certain issues, parallel to the EU progress reports. They have a highly structured organizational framework. There is a small set of employed staff. Any external professionals they have are contracted employees. They use their partner institutions to implement their different activities. ESEM uses all of their resources to lobby and advocate for women. If the current changes work, they will advocate for even more changes.

They maintain legal centers with direct serves. They also have a health info center where they provide advice on health issues. The health center gives them direct access to women who they can communicate. In the last 2-3 years, they have begun to develop budget monitoring in the health sector. Initially they focused on Roma health, but then switched to domestic violence. ESEM has office hours and phone numbers that people can call to find out about services for women (be it domestic violence or health related).ESEM provides services 2 days per week in the afternoon. They offer legal aid and pro-bono court representation when needed. This shows that people are turning to civil society for help; there is a small positive image.

While most of the civil society is really developed, there needs to be certain amount of cooperation between the government and said civil society. The civil society sector has the capacity, history, and potential but they are not used to help society. NGOs are often treated as enemies of the state, since they often monitor the government and act as a watchdog. This even goes are far as the government proclaiming that NGOs are essentially the opposition. Roughly 10,000 NGOs are registered in MK, which ESEM sees as a clear indicator that something is going on. Yet, ESEM believes that citizens see the sector as merely a way to get rich or, rarer, to contribute to society. ESEM theorized that the negative public perception of NGOs came from people who were willing to misuse the funds. Some organizations were used politically, and this contributed as well . There is an Awful perception of the left leaning Open Society Institute, which further negatively effects the rest of the civil society because they often the scape-goat of the government. Since ESEM can’t avoid this type of labeling, they ignore it.

When asked about the cooperation between NGOs and the government, ESEM responded that it depends on the ruling party and then who is specifically in power. NGOs are treated as the enemy and the government thinks NGOs are trying to usurp the government. Any cooperation between the government and NGOs is initiated by the NGOs, ESEM claims; you will rarely find honest cooperation initiated by the government. Often, they further claim, when NGOs have begun the cooperation, government employees often think that it is supposed to be a one way cooperation (NGO to the government) rather than a two way street. While ESEM could think of some examples of good cooperation with the government, it was very very rare. There is a difference between the local municipalities and the national government, but not much. Neither are interested in transparent activities. They also both use NGOGOs to cover up government activities. ESEM goes as far as to claim that the government has created their own civil society sector and that there are two sectors in MK: the real NGOs and the ones created by the government. According to ESEM, civil society is not sustainable in MK. It is hard to find real results of NGO’s work. There is a problem with activism and the formulation of the civil society field. Most NGOs are dependent upon foreign aid. This situation is creating an impossible working environment. Funding is already scarce, and these NGOGOs make it worse. Since 2010, there has been a downsizing in the civil society sector. It has become passive, according to ESEM. The sector exists, but does not do anything productive. Also, the quantity has decreased, possible from the lesser amount of money flowing into Macedonia. Cooperation with the government can be views through different lenses. ESEM meant that cooperation could be seen as equal depending on which issue you judge it off. However, there is no ‘established’ cooperation on any issue. They propose that when the government decides to actually cooperate with everyone who is responsible for subject. If NGOs can work with all ministries that address an issues, then when everyone is included, they can see the result as part of their own work- and thus want to maintain it. The government won’t refuse to work with you if you show them the benefit to them- but there has to be a benefit. Yet, some NGOs also think that cooperation with the government is a threat, a sell out.

There is some MK funding available to NGOs, and there is even a Department for Civil Society. The government announces grant opportunities, but the amount is quite small and maybe less than 1-2% of the budget. ESEM finds it “annoying” how funds are awarded. According to ESEM, the ministers directly decide which NGOs to support. Further, they do not see the applications as an opportunity to connect with many different NGOs, just preferring their own NGOs. While it is all “official and proper,” it is not “fair.” ESEM has received money from the MK government in the past.

Women’s NGOs are treated the same as other NGOs, and much is based upon the capacity of the different civil society organizations. Compared to the other civil society sectors in Macedonia, the women’s civil society sector is highly developed. They are more capable than the other NGOs in other sectors of the civil society sector. There is sustainable opportunities within the civil society sector for women’s NGOs. Since ESEM is striking out against cultural norms and traditions, this makes them stronger. Many NGOs can’t escape from general development and often lack the organizational funding and vision needed.

The meeting was very informative, especially about the ‘women’s situation’ in MK, but I am saving that for another collaborated post with information I have gained from another source as well.